Hiring Campervans

[April]

We are looking at hiring a campervan for the first three months on arrival in NZ. So far the cheapest by a long way are Backpacker Campervan & Car Rentals. Has anyone got any experience of them or heard any stories?

We have been told by relatives in NZ that some of these companies are hiring out non-roadworthy vehicles but they can't remember which ones.

Any help much appreciated.

[Duncan74]

Would be worth trying Gateway motorhomes too.

Watch what the insurance and excesses are with all of them, and think about how much you'll pay in total with the upgraded insurances. Ie we only went with the 'silver' cover as the 'gold' cover daily rate would have been more than the difference in the excesses over the 5 weeks we hired. Also consider picking up in ChCh and returning in Auckland as they normally have a flow Akl to ChCh so they have to drive them back and pay the ferry cost themselves. If you've got the flexibility then negotiate that price reduction.

[April]

Thanks for the advice Duncan - will make sure we check that thoroughly. Had a look at Gateway though and they're coming up twice the price of Backpackers and Trailfinders. Thanks tho. x

[victoria24]

we hired a backpacker 6 berth from auckland for our recce. the price seemed good as we paid in pounds. the service and vehicle were both ace

[themilkybarkid]

we hired one of the older versions of the Spaceship for 3 months which was fine for the two of us, easy to drive and very similar price to a car, and great fun - http://www.spaceshipsrentals.co.nz/

[April]

Thank you so much!

[JandM]

We also used a Spaceship, and it was great. We got price reductions for the length of time we had it (five weeks). There was a whole lot of equipment provided with it. We had a phone call from the boss of the company about half way through our trip, just checking that everything was okay and we were having a good time.

[themilkybarkid]

just spotted I said for 3 months!! I wish!! -it was 3 weeks we hired the Spaceship we had to get back to work in the UK

but as JandM says we found the staff very helpful, easy going and it was well equipped

[Manks]

We hired a 2-berth Backpacker with toilet and shower (long wheel-base VW Transporter van). The van was old and tired but it was extremely reliable. We had a couple of issues with it, one being that the front "quarter window" (the triangle behind the wing mirror) had been replaced with a badly-fitted piece of perspex rather than a pane of glass. We were sent on a bit of a wild goose chase to get it fixed and then the garage they sent us to had real trouble getting the glass fitted. But they did it, despite it being a bit gash.

The cost of Backpacker was lot less than all the others were quoting, but I do believe there was a reason for that! What we found is that a lot of the campervan hire companies are linked. The "premium" brands have the newest models, which obviously cost the most, and then they pass on older models to their related brands. In the case on Backpacker, Maui has the newest models, their older vans are passed onto Britz, who pass their even older vans onto Backpacker.

It's definitely a case of you get what you pay for, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with our van technically. It did what it said on the tin and got us from Auckland to Queenstown with very little trouble.

[kejktfc]

Spent two weeks in a Britz 6 berth in May just gone and it was outstanding. Good value, great service and a bloody good Campervan.

I would also add, we hired cars twice from A2B whilst staying in the City, they too were cheap and good quality.


kejktfc